Public Safety, Evidence Storage
Compiling Evidence for a Safe Community
Spacesaver’s evidence storage solutions preserve law and order.
A Need for Proportionate Patrolling
Driven by its diversity and the strength of its industries, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has experienced year-over-year population growth. An unfortunate result of this increase in residents is a proportionate rise in the number of crimes that are committed, which the city of Garland – a northeast suburb of Dallas – was distinctly noticing. So, in order to appropriately uphold the health and safety of this growing community, police precincts and officers were added to the city’s public services.
As these additional officers began to enforce rules and regulations within Garland, city officials noticed that though the percentage of crimes per capita was diminishing, collected evidence was piling up in the city’s limited evidence storage space. It was clear that a more substantial solution was needed to handle the caseload not only of cases currently in process, but of those to come.
Investigating All Possible Solutions
Backed with funding from a bond program, city planners sought out in late 2019 to explore design solutions for their projected warehouse that would be dedicated solely to evidence storage. To identify “must haves” for the new facility, they visited several existing evidence storage buildings. Through these trips, planners identified key design components that would help guide the building process and set parameters for the facility.
One of the facilities they visited featured Spacesaver’s lineup of public safety solutions, whose features aligned perfectly with their goal to improve evidence processing, provide space to meet new storage and handling standards, boost efficiency, and introduce effective evidence-handling controls. From this tour, officials were confident they had found a partner to help them design, build, outfit, and maintain solutions for their new facility. Solutions that – based on Spacesaver’s reputation of providing quality public safety systems – would provide climate-controlled storage and allow for complete knowledge of and access to stored materials, with additional room to support emerging digital evidence storage requirements.
Evidence Storage Guide
Evidence Storage Guide
Reinforcing The Storage Squad
The Garland Police Property Facility (completed in August of 2022) encompasses approximately 18,000 SF of space, which is almost twice as large as their former property and evidence building. Because Spacesaver was brought in during the initial stages of the two-year design and build process, we were able to work in concert with the general contractor and architect to ensure each unique storage space was designed to offer maximum capacity and functionality for years to come.
Due to the varying shapes, sizes, and physical forms of the evidence, a wide array of Spacesaver storage solutions were employed to safely and securely house the collected evidence. For larger and longer-term items, the warehouse uses our ActivRAC high-density mobile shelving (HDMS) systems that are mounted on recessed rails; a process that was made easier because of our ability to provide insight in the planning stage.
Knowing that the most important consideration with evidence storage is preserving the chain of custody, we provided several evidence locker solutions to accommodate their needs.
- Our Pass-Thru lockers allow officers to deposit evidence on one side of the wall, where it is held secure until a technician on the other side of the wall is ready to process it..
- Similarly, our Non-Pass-Thru lockers are used to store evidence that needs to be secured but can easily be accessed to be used in court or returned to its rightful owner.
- For evidence whose temperature needs to be regulated to be preserved in the exact state it was collected, we installed refrigerated evidence lockers in the facility..
- As some pieces of evidence – drugs, weapons, high-value items – brought into the facility would require an extra layer of securing and transparency, our ControLoc® mechanism was added to select doors, limiting access to authorized personnel with assigned codes.
In the end, the new facility will serve as a valuable resource to both the police department and the community as a whole. Not only will it allow for increased capacity and efficiency in storing current and future evidence, but it will be able to accommodate advancement in the technology and processes they use to serve their community.
Unaffected Evidence Storage
Spacesaver has been providing trusted solutions for police departments to save space, improve security, and preserve justice for almost 50 years. Contact us to learn more about our evidence storage solutions, and the value a no-obligation, on-site assessment from your local Spacesaver consultant can bring to your community.
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